Evil Empire

[chaz]

Don't know if this article has been posted.  Could Clear Channel suck any more?
 
  article

[nkotb]

My favorite quote:
 
 "We want to be artist-friendly," says Steve Simon, a Clear Channel executive vice president and the director of Instant Live. "But it is a business, and it's not going to be 'we have the patent, now everybody can use it for free.'"

[vansmack]

You've got to blame the Patent Office for this one.  I can't belive the Instant Live Patent was granted in the first place and to no surprise Clear Channel bought it right up.
 
 I really didn't think it was a new Patentable technology to record the soundboard, place a few mics around the arena for ambient sound, and then mass produce the recording on CD's 5 minutes after a show.
 
 The good news is the artists can still record the show and sell the CD's made later over the internet or through retailers.  But that just begs the question - where's the new technology if the only thing that changes is the location of the burn?

[kosmo vinyl]

i was wondering how a patent could be granted for such a process...

[vansmack]

It's only going to get uglier too when the Clear Channel venue vs. non-Clear Channel venue problem arises.  Does this mean a non-Clear Channel venue cannot instantly reproduce live recordings of events without paying Clear Channel a small fee?  That reaks of Monopoly and anti-competition.
 
 The next big question is do any of the small guys have enough resources to take on the giant in the first place?

[kosmo vinyl]

well the little guys like eMusiclive (formerly DCN) are using the download to USB device via kiosk as way of making shows available at select clubs. by going to usb device provides a different method of distribution other than cd.  would this violate the patent?
 
 http://www.930.com/cgi-bin/ubb-cgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=006859

[vansmack]

Originally posted by kosmo vinyl:
  would this violate the patent?
 
 

No.

[kosmo vinyl]

which means there is still room for innovation and sticking it to the evil bastards.  plus, how hard would it be to just distribute a show via a special web link obtained at a show.  cdr's suck anyways  

[vansmack]

Originally posted by kosmo vinyl:
  which means there is still room for innovation and sticking it to the evil bastards.  plus, how hard would it be to just distribute a show via a special web link obtained at a show.  cdr's suck anyways      

Absolutely. And while the crazy music nutheads like you and I would enjoy seeing the show for download for say, $5, off the bands official site, I think this technology will be a ways away, which is why it was a real benefit to the artists to sell CD's to an audience of 1,000+ as they were walking out the door.  Everybody loses with this announcement, except CC, of course.
 
 I think the Patent process needs to be re-written like Digital Copyright was re-written.  The downside of course, is that the heavy lobbies win out everytime and one can only guess as to how much the RIAA, MPAA, and media conglomerates will fork out in the lobbying process.  The situation could get worse, long before it gets better, just like the DMCA.